BOOM! Studios release a graphic novel of another one of the Cartoon Network series about two brothers who got lost in the strange forest where time and space matters in Over The Garden Wall: Soulful Symphonies.
So here’s another Cartoon Network show that I’ve never recognized because it’s one of the shortest animated series in 2014. However, Boom! Studios decided to keep the series going by publishing a comic adaptation of the show. To be honest, the only shows that got me hooked up on the 2010s was Adventure Time and Regular Show, but Cartoon Network decided to put up some junk that we recognize from our childhood, pathetic shows like Teen Titans Go, Ben 10 Omniverse and 2016 version, even Thundercats Roar made itself the most disappointing series in animation history. What happened over the last 10 years? Did Cartoon Network dump so many disappointing new animated shows that aren’t actually for fans? Not that I care, but this series is not as disappointing as the other series, sorry for not being professional, now getting back to this graphic novel.
The whole series is created by Pat McHale and this comic is written by Birdie Willis and Illustrated by Rowan MacColl. Pat McHale or Patrick McHale is best known for Adventure Time as a writer and creative director, since that time for contributing the series, he created his own animated series like this one and made it as an Emmy Award-winning mini-series.
The front cover is more like the animation cover poster that Cartoon Network introduced. However, that place that this cover took is some sort of play, right on the background where there are cardboard trunks of trees around there. Here are the beloved characters Writ, Bret and Beatrice, and a frog named Figaro. Apparently Writ is holding a clarinet, I mean this is new, other than that this is the “Soulful Symphonies” graphic novel to keep you in mind. I do like the character designs of those four and it was drawn by Keezy Young, she’s the one who created a few numbers of comics like Taproot, which is My Neighbor Totoro inspired like the story and the webcomic Never Heroes which is a Non-Webtoon series which is shown at Hiveworks comics.
At the start of the comic, you’ll see an introduction between how the performers claim to question themselves what is life, but a stage on which they set their scenes? This more guidance to encourage the performers to learn the truth about getting you on stage to impress the audience. The story starts when Writ and Bret visits a town that is mostly deserted at that time when they arrived. It’s constantly a no brainer to stumble a town where there’s no one on sight. And somehow one of the few pages of the comic just added one of the most cliched dialogues and text bubbles in every comic book philosophy, THEY STARTED SINGING. Y’know this is more normal to have the characters singing, even I get the idea of how one my main characters would sing or so, even the fact that the protagonist plays the guitar on the rooftop. Anyway, the problem is not how the town became deserted, the problem is that the whole town is haunted because the owner of the theatre named Sophie, summoned those creatures whose names are Mezz and Altamira to make all these townspeople disappear to the Unknown because of her poor performance to the audience. Even though as the town is empty, Writ and Bret joined to perform in a play that almost made them look exhausted. Beatrice finds the whole town very suspicious and they find that there are ghosts wandering around the theater. The ghosts are one of the missing villagers who got vanished from Mezz and Altamira. And the only thing that they to defeat those shadows is a song from the Figaro’s idea and making Sophie accept from her mistakes. It’s a learning experience, no matter how bad or messed up attempts you’ll take, you have to keep trying.
The story is moved to me because this graphic novel is more of an adventure to follow your heart to the right path. This comic shows how the character shows weakness until she learned to accept her mistakes that she made in the past. Other than murder or a curse, she literally vanished the whole townspeople to nothing which makes this story a mystery that plays on specific, but common fears like stage fright. It’s dark, yes, and it also sends your spine chills whenever you read this comic. The art which Rowan McColl drew is somehow exactly like how the show produced, and it almost seems that he illustrated something more like Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. I do like Kelly Young’s cover art illustrations and there’s more at the end of the comic. It’s stunning I’d say because it shows how the characters interact very well as singing, and the character designs are really adorable though. Anyway, Over the Garden Wall, the graphic novel is so frightening to read if you feel like you’re on another adventure beyond the audience.
Newsdesk